Virgin Media Broadband - Negotiate ?

[oldius]

I'm a Virgin customer and all to aware of the 'challenge' of dealing with them but they're a breeze compared to Talk Talk who were a nightmare when trying to sort out a fault with my parent's broadband.

The only one I've found friendly was Sky and that was probably because they were taking my parents on as new customers.

I have ended up taking Virgin to CISAS because they are unable to communicate when there is a fault. How can one of the world's biggest communications companies be unable to use email; have a non-functioning chat service and also be unable to contact you or resolve your issue on social media, by the admission of their own staff? Utterly incompetent and deliberately so.

 

[gintonic]

Both have perhaps the worst customer service on the planet.

My experience of Virgin is utterly appalling customer service.

must be luck of the draw - I have found their customer service very good, never had cause to moan about their response to my queries or fixing any faults. Been with them since NTL, and they have been great

 

[Seeker_UK]

Been with them since NTL, and they have been great

Then you will remember how awful it was in the last days of NTL - Virgin is a delight compared to then.

 

[gintonic]

NTL

never had a fault, never had cause to contact them. Its history now don't care

 

[Mike Reed]

Just had a 'good news' email from Virgin telling me that prices won't increase this year. Hoorah! My current package is fixed until 2021 anyway!

Their increase from the package 30mB limit to unlimited earlier was appreciated with tongue in cheek, as my wife now spends much of her day watching Chinese dramas and historical prog's on her laptop so not a lot gets done and the TV is only watched by me.

The actual service, which is free, by VM is excellent but the annual increases and hassles of phoning/haggling and their not following up on refunds isn't. Trouble is, the others are probably much worse and are not cable (apart from a few selected areas). Didn't know one can email them, though.

 

[Alex S]

As ever, being nice on the phone can get rich rewards. Not easy when you’ve been on hold for an hour with a looping playlist of three horrors and their broadband is broken for the millionth time that month!

Have all service providers struggled in the present times or is Virgin especially hopeless?

 

[Stuart Frazer]

Just ditched all things Virginmedia after my iphone on contract packed up with 14 months to run. They wouldn’t do anything about it despite it being on a three year finance deal. Rather have slightly slower broadband than give them a penny more of my money, I had been with them for the best part of 30 years from when it was NTL. Both have perhaps the worst customer service on the planet.

If your iPhone is less than 2 years old , you should definitely have protection. I'm sure UK electrical goods are covered by consumer law for a period of 2-3 years. You might need to kick up a fuss. Have you been in contact with Apple themselves about the situation?

 

[clifftaylor]

Here in Derby VM has been fine - I was assuming that the extra "Lockdown Load" was going to mean general Internet problems, but it's been fine; we're getting about 40meg (whereas 60 odd was the previous norm), which is ample.

 

[garyi]

Just had a 'good news' email from Virgin telling me that prices won't increase this year. Hoorah! My current package is fixed until 2021 anyway!

Their increase from the package 30mB limit to unlimited earlier was appreciated with tongue in cheek, as my wife now spends much of her day watching Chinese dramas and historical prog's on her laptop so not a lot gets done and the TV is only watched by me.

The actual service, which is free, by VM is excellent but the annual increases and hassles of phoning/haggling and their not following up on refunds isn't. Trouble is, the others are probably much worse and are not cable (apart from a few selected areas). Didn't know one can email them, though.

you can’t on residential part of the reason I went business

 

[hifinutt]

we ordered virgin for my son`s flat on the friday and they fitted it on the tues perfectly , excellent service

 

[Darren L]

You should try satellite broadband if you'd like overpriced crap service,it's like being back on dial up, any of the fibre broadband services are much better, a few years back living in another area we moved from Virgin to Sky, faster and cheaper, unfortunately there's no fibre broadband in this area.

 

[Mike Reed]

You should try satellite broadband if you'd like overpriced crap service,it's like being back on dial up, any of the fibre broadband services are much better,

a few years back living in another area we moved from Virgin to Sky, faster and cheaper, unfortunately there's no fibre broadband in this area.

Completely baffled by this. First line says that Satellite (Sky?) is rubbish compared to fibre (Virgin). In your second sentence you moved from Virgin to Sky (satellite?) which was faster and cheaper.

As I've been close to changing from Virgin to Sky, I'd be interested in what you're trying to say, as one sentence seems to refute the other.

 

[Darren L]

Sorry Mike you're confusing satellite with Sky, you're probably thinking of Sky Satellite TV, when I say satellite I mean the broadband service actually comes from a satellite to a satellite dish on the wall and then to a wireless router and its crap, really slow with a delay, when we moved from Virgin to Sky broadband in a previous address they were both broadband fibre services, using fibre optic cables, the Sky broadband service was notably better/faster especially when watching online movies on Amazon, Netflix or I player, etc.

 

[Mike Reed]

Sorry Mike you're confusing satellite with Sky, you're probably thinking of Sky Satellite TV,

Darren. not so much confused but think I've totally lost the plot as to how many ways broadband can be obtained. I think there was cable (Virgin), Sky (TV only) and B.T. lines (now cable to local box). I didn't know broadband could be received by a satellite dish.

In my defence, I not only remember the A and B buttons for 4d to push when one's through in phone boxes but needed to use them when there weren't vandalised. Hardly anybody in my peer group had landline phones in 'Appy 'Ampstead or anywhere. Communication was by letter and shouting but who cared; it was the late fifties and sixties !!!!

 

[Darren L]

Yeah where the fibre optic cables haven't been installed you can get broadband via a satellite dish, twice the price and half the speed of fibre optic but as far as I'm aware the only viable option for people in this area and perhaps some other rural areas.